RPS: TA: TG or Rock Paper Scissors: The Animation: The Game is a video game I developed that serves as commentary towards video game industry. I felt that many video games today are unoriginal; a new popular game comes out, and it's very similar to one that came out the previous year, it just has a fresh coat of paint. My mission was how can I shed light on this idea of the recycling of concepts hidden behind pretty, new graphics. My answer was to take one of the oldest, simplest, universally known games I can think of, Rock Paper Scissors, and give it the same treatment. I wanted to create a juxtaposition between gameplay and graphics. This way, it becomes painfully obvious to the player that they're just playing Rock Paper Scissors, the graphics mean nothing.
The gameplay is just Rock Paper Scissors. It is presented in a fighting game style, with one character on the left and one character on the right. Along with critiquing the game industry, I also wanted to satirize the animation industry. There are specific types of animations found in say, anime, that have become cliche. A lot of my research was finding these cliche animations, recreating them, and using them as my tool to create the façade. Combined with an epic backtrack provided by my colleague, Dennis S. Mowers, the result was a game of Rock Paper Scissors that seems way more important than it actually is.
The game was exhibited at the SUNY Purchase College Passage Gallery. My goal for the exhibition was to give it the feel of a fighting game tournament. The two players are playing their game at the more intimate set up, while it is being projected to the center of the gallery so other can spectate. This is all to add to the exaggeration of Rock Paper Scissors and to all in all make it more ridiculous.
